Star Wars fans have their hands clasped in prayer that Episode VII will respect the spirit of the original trilogy. The new Stormtrooper helmets and their awesomeness have given them hope.
Everyone knows the Imperial stuff in the original Star Wars trilogy is the coolest: TIE Fighters, E11 blaster carbines, and one of the most iconic images of the Star Wars saga, Stormtrooper outfits.
A group of Star Wars fans are so enamored with Imperial costumes that they founded a cosplay group called the 501st Legion. If you’ve ever been to a midnight Star Wars movie premiere and seen Biker Scouts and Imperial officers hanging around outside, they were probably members of the 501st in costume.
When the 501st’s Twitter feed declares that we now have images of Stormtrooper helmets from J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: Episode VII, we can probably afford to suspend disbelief and just feel the joy. These helmets look freaking awesome.
First glimpse of the @starwars #EpisodeVII Stormtrooper & Snowtrooper (via @IndieRevolver)! The future of the #501st! pic.twitter.com/Zycnl5Q4P2
— 501st Legion (@501stLegion) August 15, 2014
Indierevolver.com shared the images online for the first time on Thursday. The first image is clearly for modernized version of a stock-issue Stormtrooper helmet. Consensus seems to be that the second image is an updated Snowtrooper helmet.
The helmet designs jive with the information that website Making Star Wars shared on June 17. They also mesh conceptually with what J.J. Abrams did with with the U.S.S. Enterprise in his Star Trek reboot. The new designs are modernized and slick, and their identities are unmistakable.
Between these images and the picture of Mark Hamill rocking the Jedi beard, this has been a damned good week for Star Wars fans.
H/T Polygon | Illustration by Jason Reed